NEWS_ARTICLE.RttP{Boston Herold: condom bomber?}

Condom bomber’s saga: Mother ‘snapped’ over men

Former strip club waitress Kimberly Lynn DaSilva says she “snapped” one day last fall when she mailed seven condom bombs to a random array of targets, including a popular radio DJ and a college she’d never been to.

That bizarre and dangerous act, a federal crime that could have landed her behind bars, haunts the remorseful mother of two every day, she told the Herald in an exclusive interview.

“I had a complete meltdown,” said DaSilva, 39, of Hull, speaking publicly for the first time since her arrest last year.

DaSilva said she “snapped,” in part, after years of bad relationships with men.

“It was an accumulation of the abuse, the lies, the mistrust,” she said. “In my dating history, I’ve picked the worst of the worst.”

DaSilva was sentenced last month to five years’ probation and 500 hours of community service for mailing the toxic bubble-wrapped manila envelopes that authorities said could have caused a low-level explosion in September 2005.

“I’m the ‘condom bomber,’ ” she said with shame and frustration. “I don’t even remember what made me decide to do this. This is not who I am.”

The aftermath of the nine-month court case, which made national news, has left the Florida-born waitress and one-time nursing student lucky to be home to see her son’s high school graduation and celebrate her 40th birthday.

Her strange criminal saga began early last year when she fell for a 45-year-old regular at Alex’s strip joint in Stoughton, where she waited tables to make ends meet and he dropped $300 a visit.

When he dumped her for a 23-year-old strip club waitress, DaSilva lost it, authorities alleged.

She was accused of sending a series of ranting letters to authorities and two strip clubs where she worked, painting her bad boy beau as a drug-dealing, wannabe Mafioso and his new gal as a prostitute.

But DaSilva told the Herald that she sent the letters and would-be bombs as a desperate act to draw attention to an ex-boyfriendshe thought was making sexual advances toward her teen daughter. She said she was so intimidated by his purported mob lifestyle that she didn’t go to the cops. No charges were filed against him.

That period of her life, during which she was drinking heavily, was surreal, she said.

“I was going down a road and I didn’t see anything going on around me. There were times when I could see myself doing stuff, but I was not able to stop it,” she said.

Now, ashamed and guilt-plagued, she wants to move on.

“I take full responsibility for the things I did. They were wrong. When I did it, I was at a point where I was so lost,” she said.

DaSilva, who is a cook for a caterer, hopes to restart Bodacious Bundles, an online gift basket business that sells traditional and erotic gift baskets, including ones with sex toys and lotions.

She wants to focus on raising her daughter, 16, and son, 18. She beams with pride when she talks about sending them off to college.

“My whole life has been dedicated to raising my kids,” she said during an interview, wearing glasses, a turquoise turtleneck, tan blazer and jeans.

She sees a therapist weekly and takes anti-depressants to cope with what she did.

“I want to know what caused me to go that over the top,” she said.
Pembroke police are investigating DaSilva for a separate incident, which involves e-mails the police received prior to her sentencing, but no charges have been filed.

DaSilva has to stay out of trouble for five years or she could wind up in jail. Her probation requires her to abstain from alcohol and continue mental health treatment. She says she’d also like to love again, someday.

“I still have hopes for me - somewhere along the line - that I’ll find my one true love,” she said. “Am I looking for him now? Hell, no.”

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